How I found out about this book: Judging a book by its cover? Hells yeah. That's me.

Quickie: It's. Pretty.

The insides are pretty good, too.

My review: The stories ramble a little bit, but they always get where they're going--to the pit of a cherry of a romance coated in lip-smacking fantasy--whether it's goblins in some hick town, or a cursedly beautiful singing voice, or a demon-possessed mother and daughter on the run. I loved Taylor's stories and how they were coupled with di Bartolo's flowing illustrations. This is the kind of book I'd read on a dark and stormy night, but for want of rain I just read it anyway. It was still good.

Who should read this book: The tales explore yearning, memory, and superstition in a lyrical, dreamy fashion. Older teens (16 and up) will probably get more enjoyment out of these stories than the younger ones. There's nothing too objectionable (the "rutting" in the last of the three stories takes place "off the page" if you will) though anyone seeking a moral to the stories may be left unsatisfied, and baffled to boot. Values, if the reader comes away with any, will be more amorphous: strength, cleverness, and spirit.